1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a magnetic recording head and a method for manufacturing a magnetic recording head. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a bi-directional magnetic recording head built on a single substrate and a method for building the bi-directional magnetic recording head built on a single substrate.
2. Description of the Related Art
Thin film linear tape heads are typically made with two arrays of devices, with each array capable of both reading and writing data. Typically, around eight or sixteen devices exist in a single array. Each array is physically built on a separate substrate, and then positioned with respect to each other to form the finished magnetic recording head. This positioning allows for the data written by one array to be read immediately after by the other array. As such, the alignment of devices between the two arrays of devices is critical. Each device in the write array corresponds to a device in the read array. Improperly aligned arrays can result in corrupted data written on the magnetic recording head or the inability to read back the written data. The problem is magnified as the size of each individual device on the array decreases to accommodate smaller bit sizes, and hence increased capacity, on the tape. The increased alignment precision can substantially increase the cost and difficulty of processing magnetic recording heads.